In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us may realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.) (b. 1924), U.S. president. Address at Commencement Exercises at Notre Dame University, May 22, 1977, Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter, Vol. 1977, Book 1, p. 958, Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office (1977).
His version of the idea that “the pen is mightier than the sword.”